Middle school holds a luxurious funeral, vice-principal suspended

A rich merchant in Wenling, Zhejiang held a luxurious funeral for his mother in a local middle school. Classes were suspended and the playground was used. The funeral cost 6 million yuan. The vice-principal of the school has been suspended.

9 Lincoln limousines, 1 thousand people band and 8 video cameras appeared in the luxurious funeral in Xinhezhen Wenling on March 3th. The playground was crowded with people and full of luxury cars. A long carpet was in the middle. There was a large display screen on each side which showed the pictures of the elderly woman. Hundreds of monks performed religious rituals. It’s said that there were not enough monks and drummers locally, some of them came from Wenzhou and Ningbo. Many people, condoled on the death of the elderly woman. Most of them didn’t know the elderly women at all, but came for the gift of money. Anyone who condoled with incense could get about 200 to 1700 yuan and 2 packets of cigarettes.

The dead woman was Chen Laotai, 82 years old. She had 5 sons and 1 daughter, who held this funeral together for her. Chen had been a widow for many years. She raised her sons and daughter by herself so they are all very filial. The six are all successful in the real estate, hotels, or mining industry. Each of them gave 1 million yuan for the funeral.

For the funeral, they required the peddlers along the road not to work that day and gave them 500 yuan each in advance in order to keep the traffic flowing. The funeral was held in the playground of Xinhe Middle School, a local major school. Many students went to watch the funeral during break. Some P.E. classes were canceled. Students were commanded not to play on the playground.

This luxurious funeral was criticized on the internet, especially for the school. The local government has started inquiries into the funeral, considered it violating some rules of funeral management. New came from last night said, a vice principle of the school was already suspected over this.

Whatever. At least those rich people are injecting money into the local economy by doing this. However, they should have held it on the weekend so class wasn’t disrupted. VP should be fired (and the bribe money he and other school officials received be donated to the school).